Two Carleton University faculty members, Tim Cook and Patricia Smart, have received 2016 Ottawa Book Awards. Below is a short excerpt of the announcement with the full text available through the Carleton Newsroom.

“It is a great honour to be recognized with this award,” said Cook. “This book, Fight to the Finish, and the first in the series, The Necessary War, span the entire Canadian war effort from 1939 to 1945, and explore the veterans’ experience and the memory of the war. It is these eyewitnesses who speak loudest in the book. I spent years in the archives reading their letters and diaries, and their powerful words offer new insight into the experience of battle, the clash of arms and how service personnel cope and endure.“

Fight to the Finish is a memorable account of Canadians in World War II who fought abroad and of the home front that was changed forever. In this second installment, Cook combines an extraordinary grasp of military strategy with a deep empathy for the soldiers on the ground, at sea and in the air.